TRUMP: 'U.S. HAS AUTHORITY TO TAKE GAZA'

US President Donald Trump is known for making jaw-dropping remarks that range from threats of war to expansionist ambitions. After returning to the White House for a second term, he announced the US was interested in re-taking control of the Panama Canal, renaming the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America, annexing Canada as the 51st US state, and buying Greenland from colonial power Denmark.

On 4 February, Trump made headlines by announcing US intentions to occupy and rebuild Gaza during a press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House. 

While Netanyahu described the idea as ‘revolutionary’ and ‘creative,’ Qatar, Jordan, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Iraq, as well as the six-state Gulf Cooperation Council (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia) have rejected Trump’s plan, which also called for building towns to house displaced Palestinians in other countries. The Biden administration’s request for Egypt to accept Palestinian refugees had also been rebuffed, given the historic importance of the Palestinian struggle to Arabs as well as the possibility that moving Palestinians out of Gaza would violate their right to their land. Egypt has announced it will host an emergency summit to discuss the proposal with Arab countries on 27 February.

Trump said his plan would create ‘a lot of jobs’ and that Gaza would come under US authority. King Abdullah emphasised that finding a solution that ‘was best for everyone’ should be the priority, and he promised to accept 2,000 Palestinian children in need of medical care.

Earlier in the week, Trump hinted that he would withhold aid to Jordan and Egypt unless they agreed to take in Palestinians from Gaza. Jordan, a US ally, already hosts more than 2 million Palestinian refugees. 

The death toll from Israel's war on Gaza has been updated to 61,000, according to the Gaza media office, with estimates potentially reaching as high as 186,000 as of July 2024, according to the Lancet medical journal.

Video credit: @cnn

Sources:

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cly9m7kv7lro 

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-withhold-aid-jordan-egypt-reject-gaza-development/story?id=118668060 

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-netanyahu-press-conference-ceasefire-hostages

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(24)01169-3/fulltext 

https://truthout.org/articles/gaza-officials-update-death-toll-to-over-61000-adding-thousands-presumed-dead

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/12/world/middleeast/trump-gaza-egypt-jordan.html

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/02/09/egypt-announces-emergency-arab-summit-after-trumps-gaza-plan-infuriates-key-allies.html

https://reason.com/2025/01/27/trump-revives-bidens-failed-proposal-to-remove-palestinians-from-gaza

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/2/9/saudi-arabia-slams-netanyahus-suggestion-it-should-host-palestinian-state

https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2025/02/09/netanyahu-says-we-ll-do-the-job-of-carrying-out-trump-s-gaza-plan_6737960_4.html